Determining # of Turns Remaining

[ripcord_tx]

I'm finally winning on Monarch level! Whee!

But I ran into a problem last night - not with strategy, but with game mechanics. It's approaching 1000 AD and the Germans have the same number of cities I do but are way behind in the power curve. I'm Russian and in 2nd place behind the French. And even though I'm in Democracy, I'm thinking now is the time to use my Cossacks and trigger a golden age. I declare war on the Germans.

Whoops, they had a mutual protection pack with Zulus, so I'm at war on 2 fronts. Then the English pile on so I'm at war on 3 fronts. I decide now is the time for diplomacy, so I enlist the French and Greek to war the English and Zulu, and enlist the Romans to help with the Germans. The latter 3 countries are now gracious with me, and we exchange Christmas present and talk about the family.

It's several turns later - enlisting the Romans was a bad idea, for they swept more German cities than I did. As the Germans are down to their last 3 cities, the Germans contact me and ask for peace. I ask for 2 of their 3 cities and peace is established.

But now the Romans are furious with me. I suspect I broke our alliance too soon. Is the only method of determining how many turns are left is to contact the party? If I'm in the middle of peace negotiations with the Germans, should I have broken off talks, contacted the Romans and checked the "Active" button and see how many turns are left? Or is there another way?

 

[Yndy]

Yes, you should have broken off talks with the Germans. You wouldn't have lost much if you did. The AI requests for diplomacy talks are just for variation in the game.
What I do is after a 'period' of war, I check the AI to see how many turns do I have.

Moreover, if the deal would have expired, the Romans should have noticed you. If the deal exceeded 20 turns it is not automatically canceled. You have to cancel it manually, or the AI cancel it.

 

[cracker]

Congrats on moving up in the play ladder. You will find that the games up in the Monarch and Emporer level are really much more fun. (FYI, the step to Emporer requires a big shift in strategy due to the the 1 content citizen instead of 2)

For agreements you already have in place you can use the foriegn advisor screen and make sure you turn on the NPP and ROP lines so you can see those when you look around.

You can click on any leader to bring them up like you where going to have a discussion and then look dow at the bottom of the center dialog box to see "New" and "Active" options.

The "New" screen is what you have been acustomed to seeing.

The "Active" screen will display any open agreements that your are currently obligated to keep along with a number code in parenthesis that will indicate the number of turns left to go in the deal.

I'm with you in that the fixed length of turns for the agreements that relate to war is a bad design element of the game. I rarely have a war that lasts 20 turns.

In your case, the Romans are now furious with you but a sort of hidden problem is that your reputation has been damaged by breaking this agreement so this will effect the attitudes of the othercivs even though they currently are gracious too you because you have a common war with Shaka and Libby.

On the year s per turn issue (almost forgot), there is a short article on that topic in the Infor center but I have the last part memorized at 100 turns each for 5, 2, and 1 years. This puts the breaks at 2050-1950 for1, 1750 to 1950 for 2, and 1250 to 1750 at 5 years per turn.

Good luck,

(edit: I went back and fixed the typo too, just to make sure no one injures themselves)

 

[Cartouche Bee]

Originally posted by cracker
This puts the breaks at 2050-1950 for1, 1750 to 1950 for 2, and 1450 to 1750 at 5 years per turn.

Good luck,

This puts the breaks at 2050-1950 for1, 1750 to 1950 for 2, and 1250 to 1750 at 5 years per turn.


Just fixing a little typo.

 

[ripcord_tx]

Dang. I guess once you get a bad rep, any diplomatic victory is impossible.

If I just call up the Romans to look at the screen, does it irritate him? I thought I had to have a reason to talk to him.

 

[cracker]

I don't think it irritates them, but I have not tested the absoluteness of this.

Trade a worthless map with them or give them a penny if you are on the border with this issue.

 

[Cartouche Bee]

Originally posted by ripcord_tx
Dang. I guess once you get a bad rep, any diplomatic victory is impossible.

If I just call up the Romans to look at the screen, does it irritate him? I thought I had to have a reason to talk to him.

OT, Only shows their current attitude towards you. The first step in repairing your rep (for a diplo win) with them is to get into a position for a ROP. You should see a dramatic change in attitude, if you don't then you can start to butter them up.

 

[hbdragon88]

Yeah, that's the only way, and I think that it's a real shortcoming of Civ3. I was at war with three parties (stupid AI was signing MPPs at the wrong time) and I had a tough time riding it out with the MPP I had that triggered war with other parties. I had to be sure that every MPP I had that started wars was expired before moving to make peace.

 

[Sgt.Hellfish]

hehe I h8 MPP's im playin Europe at the moment i started in ireland and have conquered England, Scotland, Wales, IcelandFrance,Germany,Austria,Netherlands,Belgium,Itlay,West North Africa, NE Spain, West Russia and Sweden.
Rome has the Alps and a bit of France.
America and Babylon share Russia, India owns Norway, Aztecs and England share the entire Balklands area England also owns Middle East and Japan owns East North Africa
Me and Rome vs the World I now own a quarter of Russia a chunck of Norway, Africa Spain and Most of the Balklands. I have over 300 units lol. Thatll teach em to complain, sign MPP's and get annoyed about ICBMs

 

[Orcin]

If I just call up the Romans to look at the screen, does it irritate him? I thought I had to have a reason to talk to him.

Ripcord... I was concerned about this myself. So once I played a game (Regent I believe) where I contacted the AI almost every turn and rarely did anything in the way of business. Mostly, I was just trying to determine if it irritated the AI to do so. I didn't make gifts of 1 gold or map during these visits, in fact I gave no bribes at all during the entire game.

However, I accepted every deal that was offered to me by the AI without haggling over price (yes even the one-sided tech trades and tribute demands), and always traded maps etc when asked. I also never declared war, never attacked anyone, never intruded on their territory without ROP, and never asked an AI to leave my territory (even without ROP).

I won a unanimous diplomatic victory.

So I am quite sure that merely checking them does not hurt your rep or make them annoyed at you.

P.S. Yes, this was a boring game. It was fun to watch the AI fight world wars in my territory though... NOT.

 

[Reagan]

I remember reading that the AI doesn't like it if you contact them and then don't reach a deal before signing off. A solution: if you offer a map-for-map or any other deal and then hit the "escape" key, it will take you out of diplomacy without completing a deal and without having to say "forget it" -- even if your advisor says the AI will not accept the trade. This will allow you to check for workers, new techs, etc., without having to make a trade if you don't want to.

 

[DaveMcW]

Talking to AIs does not affect their attitude in any way. The only time a failed deal will make them mad is if it's a demand.

 

[Missing Persons]

The things I have observed which affect AI attitude during diplomacy are refusing a demand, making a demand. Also cancelling an alliance, ROP, MPP, or trade agreement will affect attitude as well even though it has peacefully expired.

I have even seen Gracious go to Furious with such action.

Breaking deals affects reputation and will be very difficult and expensive to get similar deals in the future.

 

[RobOz]

Many of you know this, of course, but in PTW you can just go to the diplomacy advisor and there is an option to check terms of treatys or alliances.